CFP: Representational formats in agency

Call for Abstracts

Workshop on Representational Formats in Agency

ERC funded project Rethinking Conscious Agency (ReConAg 757698)

Logos Research Group in Analytic Philosophy (Universitat de Barcelona)

Barcelona Institute for Analytic Philosophy

April 20-21, 2023, Barcelona (in person only)

Many cognitive processes—from perception to action performance—take place thanks to representations in different formats. Agency (that is, the production of intentional action), when successful, arguably involves the interlock of representations in different formats. The topic of agency, therefore, offers a great opportunity to investigate the way in which representations in different formats interact.

This workshop aims to cover various aspects of the topic of different representational formats, and to discuss their impact on bodily agency.

We invite submissions on the following, and related, topics and questions:

- The interface problem. It is often assumed that the successful production of bodily action relies on at least two kinds of representation: intentions, thought to be propositionally formatted, and motor representations, thought to be motorically formatted. How do intentions and motor representations successfully interlock?

- Different representational formats. Representations outside the domain of action performance come in different formats (e.g., iconic, map-like…). What are the characteristics of these representational formats? Are they also involved in agency? Can a better understanding of these formats illuminate the topic of bodily agency?

- Other interface problems. The problem of how representations in different formats interact arises outside the domain of bodily agency—that is, there are other forms of interface problems. How can these be solved? Can solutions to other forms of the interface problem shed light on how to solve the interface problem concerning bodily agency? Does mental agency involve an interface problem, too?

Our keynote speakers will be Elisabeth Pacherie (Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure) and Jacob Beck (York University).

Submission guidelines

We invite submissions for 20-minute presentations followed by a 20-minute discussion. Submissions should consist in 500-word abstracts with a title. Please send your abstracts to [email protected] by January 8, 2023 (included).